Letter of the Day: Shaky thinking on pot

January 13, 2014, 6:27PM

01/13/2014

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EDITOR: In his Thursday op-ed, Jay Ambrose ("All eyes on Colorado and a new kind of mountain high") claimed that comparing alcohol to marijuana lacks "careful thinking." Yet he seems to have trouble doing it himself.

Yes, booze is "more embedded in our culture," as he said, but about 40 percent of Americans have tried it, close to 10 percent in the past year. That sample size is plenty big enough when you consider there are zero reported deaths from pot compared to about 75,000 a year from alcohol (his statistics). Marijuana is clearly leaps and bounds less harmful on a per-capita basis.

As for the most ridiculous assertion in Ambrose's column -#8212; "One writer says an example of (a marijuana disorder for youths) is believing a TV is forwarding secret messages" -#8212; seriously? This is journalism? Referencing one anonymous writer to make a point? One writer (me) thinks that is completely moronic. It did give me a good laugh, though.